2023-12-27

etc

• Volkswagen Beetle Lives on in Mexico City

  • Simple, cheap, reliable cars: too good for the first world.

• Texas Cops Find Two Bodies in Hunt for Missing Teen Savanah Nicole Soto

• Indiana man found by good Samaritans rescued from car wreck after 6 days trapped in vehicle: 'A miracle'

Horseshit

• Nearly half of new passenger cars in EU electrified

• Why 'resurrection biology' is gaining traction around the world

• A tobacco giant changed a global anti-tobacco treaty

• Chinese chess champion stripped of title after defecating in hotel bathtub

• Stop telling children the world hates them

• Murdaugh Trial Clerk Accused of Plagiarizing Parts of Tell-All Memoir

• How 2023 has been the ‘year of the brink’ and 2024 could be worse

  holding back from the brink in 2023 has simply deferred vast crises to 2024. The post-Covid world is exhausted, cash-strapped, but ultimately more fraught than for decades. Overshadowing it all will be a flagging hyperpower, at best distracted with presidential elections, at worst tearing itself apart in voting disputes and political extremism. The likelihood the United States will be occupied by its own traumas amplifies each risk. The geopolitical given of a US response will be absent, fuelling authoritarian ambition, or a radical upending of the global order. 2024 could make 2023 seem rational and sober.

celebrity gossip

• Korean TikTok star Won Joeng arrested on sexual assault charges – report

• Prominent French Stars Defend Depardieu in Letter After Rape Charge

Obit

• German political heavyweight Wolfgang Schäuble dies aged 81

• Parasite actor Lee Sun-kyun found dead in Seoul

Rank Propaganda / Thought Policing / World Disordering

• Republican Push to Ban TikTok Has Little (and Dwindling) Real World Support

• (12 Dec 2023) Project Veritas CEO quits over 'strong evidence of past illegality'

Musk

• Giving Thanks to Elon Musk

• X Is Elon Musk's Lonely Party Now

• Tesla robot ATTACKS an engineer at Texas factory during violent malfunction

• X will go to court after failing to pay staff millions in annual bonuses

Trump / War against the Right / Jan6

• Donald Trump Wishes Electric-Car Supporters Rot in Hell for Christmas

• Marjorie Taylor Greene Complains about FBI’s Inaction After Being Swatted For the 8th Time on Christmas Day › American Greatness

• Colorado, FBI Investigate 'Incidents’ Directed at Justices in Trump Ballot Ruling

• FBI investigating threats directed at Colorado supreme court justices

• FBI Investigating After Violent Threats To Colorado Supreme Court Justices

• FBI investigating threats to Colorado judges as Trump pours "gasoline on the fire"

• FBI investigate threats against Colorado judges who ruled against Trump

• Trump Posts Poll Showing ‘Revenge’ and ‘Dictatorship’ as Priorities

Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation

• Petition for OpenAI to fire Tal Broda for genocidal tweets hits 10k signatures

• Pro-Palestinians disrupt Christmas fundraiser for blind children

• Meta is systematically suppressing pro-Palestinian content

• Minnesota professor calls to 'decolonize' and 'dismantle' the US

  “So it’s our responsibility as people who are within the United States to go as hard as possible to decolonize this place because that will reverberate all across the world,” Yazzie said. “Because the U.S. is the greatest predator empire that has ever existed.”

Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts

• Claudine Gay Turmoil Forces Harvard’s Secretive ‘Corporation’ Into Spotlight

• Harvard's Gay Has Won a Second Chance

Entertainment / ShowBiz / Advertising

• Apple appeals US ban on Apple Watch

  • Apple in panic mode as $34B product banned

• Japan to crack down on Apple and Google app store monopolies

• Nintendo appears to be shutting down Wii U, 3DS online play early

• Open Rails: Free, open-source train simulator

  Open Rails is the modern successor to Microsoft Train Simulator (MSTS), and is fully backward compatible with all MSTS content.

• Prime Video forcing ads from January

  • Amazon Prime Video starts showing ads in January unless you pay $2.99/month xtra

  • Amazon Prime Video Will Start Showing Ads on January 29

TechSuck / Geek Bait

• 12VO power standard appears to be gaining steam, will reduce PC cabling, costs

Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO

• A16Z-backed Apex Space opens new factory to ramp satellite bus production

Economicon / Business / Finance

• Israel grants Intel $3.2B for new $25B chip plant

• "I thought it was time to call out all the Orwellian rewriting of intellectual history going on," How Were So Many Economists So Wrong About the Recession?

  • What Recession? How So Many Economists Got It So Wrong - Bloomberg

• Inflation has created a dark cloud over how everyday Americans view the economy

• Los Angeles Office Building Sells at 52% Less Than 2018 Price

• Free returns are going away

  Eighty-one precent of merchants are now charging a fee for at least some methods of returns, according to Happy Returns, a logistics company that specializes in returns.

• California Pizza Hut operators laying off all delivery drivers

  Two large Pizza Hut operators in California are laying off all their delivery drivers ahead of a new state law that raises the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $20 an hour, Business Insider reports. The layoffs impact hundreds of Pizza Hut locations across the state including Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Ventura and San Bernardino counties and Sacramento, and involve more than 1,200 in-house delivery drivers.

• Holiday Spending Up in US, Despite Financial Anxiety, Higher Costs

  Holiday sales from the beginning of November through Christmas Eve climbed 3.1%, a slower pace than the 7.6% increase from a year earlier, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse. sales growth was a bit lower than the 3.7% increase Mastercard SpendingPulse had projected in September. The data released Tuesday excludes the automotive industry and is not adjusted for inflation.

• Home prices may climb to fresh all-time highs as the Fed eyes rate cuts and mortgage rates fall

  • October home prices post biggest gain of 2023, despite higher mortgage rates

Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making

• Jeff Fortenberry Conviction Reversed by Appeals Court

• Vivek Ramaswamy Ends ‘Idiotic’ TV Ad Spending in Last-Minute Pivot

  • Vivek Ramaswamy cancels TV ads before first GOP primary votes: reports

• 2024 wild card: A banner year for third-party candidates

Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security

• FBI warns travellers not to use public charging ports at airports, hotels - NZ Herald

  Although the warning was not believed to be linked to any specific threat, several government agencies issued similar warnings for travellers to be mindful of their “cyber hygiene” when charging phones in public places.

• Blinken Heads to Mexico as Migrant Caravan Moves Toward U.S. Border

  • A US delegation to meet with Mexican government for talks on the surge of migrants at border

• Teen Girls Stabbed by Stranger at Grand Central Terminal

External Security / Militaria / Diplomania

• Another Container Ship Attacked In Red Sea As Houthis Act With Impunity | ZeroHedge

• China Sanctions US Company, Two Researchers over Xinjiang Work

• Iran Adds to Pressure on U.S. with Nuclear Program Acceleration

  • Iran Resumes Pace of 60% Uranium Enrichment, IAEA Says

• Houthi attacks and U.S. strikes add to concerns of broader conflict in the Middle East

  U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a statement that there is “no higher priority” than the protection of American troops and interests. “While we do not seek to escalate conflict in the region, we are committed and fully prepared to take further necessary measures to protect our people and our facilities,” Austin added.

• US hits Iran-backed militias in Iraq after attack

• Details on U.S. retaliatory strike against Iranian-backed militants in Iraq

• U.S. Shoots Down Another 17 Houthi Drones And Missiles Over Red Sea, Military Says

World

• Javier Milei Has Tapped into the Discontent of a New, Informal Working Class

  Ignored by the political and media establishment, Milei’s far-right coalition marks the hardening of socioeconomic changes that have themselves received little attention. Upon closer analysis, stubborn and acute inflation without effective government response, lingering challenges left over from the pandemic, the deepening influence of social media, and the stark polarization of political discourse has made the rise of a personality like Milei — Argentina’s version of Jair Bolsonaro or Donald Trump — a predictable phenomenon.

• Why Can't Italy's Economy Get into Gear? Consider the Taxi Line

• New tool to enable EU to withstand economic coercion enters into force

• Here's what to know about Turkey's decision to move forward with Sweden's bid to join NATO

• Sweden's NATO Bid Back for Debate by Turkish Parliamentary Committee

• Gunmen Kill at Least 140 Nigerian Villagers

  Gunmen attacked remote villages over the weekend in north-central Nigeria's Plateau state, killing at least 140 people, officials and survivors said Tuesday, the latest case this year of such mass killings blamed on the farmer-herder crisis in the West African nation. The assailants targeted 17 communities in "senseless and unprovoked" attacks on Saturday and Sunday, burning down most houses in the area, Plateau Governor Caleb Mutfwang said in a broadcast on the local Channels Television.

Israel

• How American citizens are leading rise of settler violence on Palestinian lands

• Israel-Hamas War: Israel Says It Expects ‘Many More Months’ of War

• Israel expands Gaza offensive into 'new battle zone,' warns war will go on for many months

• Six killed in Israeli strike on refugee camp in occupied West Bank

• With Israeli Raids in the West Bank, ‘There’s No Such Thing as Sleeping at Night’

• U.N. appoints Gaza humanitarian relief coordinator

  • UN Appoints Gaza Humanitarian Relief Coordinator Following Aid Vote

• Israel's war cabinet took an Egyptian proposal to end the war with Hamas to a wider group of ...

Russia Bad / Ukraine War

• Russian warship sunk in suspected Storm Shadow missile attack

  • Russia confirms Ukraine destroyed its warship in Crimea attack

• Jailed Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny Says He's Fine After Weeks Missing

Health / Medicine

• Why does your poo sometimes float? It might be down to your gut health

• Quality of care declines after private equity takes over hospitals

  • Serious Medical Errors Rose After Private Equity Firms Bought Hospitals

• Cummins agrees to pay nearly $1.7B to settle federal Clean Air Act investigation

• Hospital Price Gaps Show Just How Broken the $4.5T US Health Market Is

Environment / Climate / Green Propaganda

• Meet the economist who wants the field to account for nature

• Australian Billionaire Claims Renewable Energy Will 'Take over' Farm Land

• Cummins agrees to pay nearly $1.7B to settle federal Clean Air Act investigation

• What are farm animals thinking?

• Ski resorts battle for a future as snow declines in climate crisis

• Colorado wolf reintroduction to move forward as ranchers' legal effort fails

  The lawsuit and subsequent filings by the livestock groups asked to halt the reintroduction, which is mandated to take place by the end of 2023. The cattlemen's lawsuit alleges the reintroduction could harm the endangered Gunnison sage grouse populations and kill or stress cattle.

• Animals cause record number of vehicle breakdowns – rats are prime troublemaker

• Greener trees can provide early warning of volcanic awakening

• The link between climate change and a spate of rare disease outbreaks in 2023

• Climate Change Is Making Your Coffee More Bitter and Expensive